by Linda Charlton
As school re-opens, some students and teachers face special challenges — not because of who they are, but because of what they do. They make music. More importantly, they make music together, for band is a team sport; so is orchestra, jazz band, and choir. In addition, it has been widely reported that singing is a great way to spread aerosols (and potentially virus). An ongoing Performing Arts Aerosol Study shows that playing a wind instrument also can spread aerosols.
So how do groups rehearse, and how do they rehearse safely?
Well as it turns out, making rehearsals safe may be the easy part.
Michael Tarquine is director of Fine Arts at Windy Hill Middle School, and is director of choir and theater there. Speaking of the new year, he says “following guidelines of the CDC and the Florida Music Educators Association (FMEA), students will still be able to sing and do the things that they have been missing since March.”
That means masks on, social distancing while singing, and rehearsals limited to 30 minutes, with the remainder of class time devoted to academic matters such as music notation and history. As Tarquine points out, a recent FMEA study shows that “a 30-minute rehearsal with masks and social distancing is a low-risk situation.”
Band is a little more complicated. Recommendations coming out of that Performing Arts Aerosol Study include bell covers for all wind instruments, masks worn when possible, no emptying of spit valves on the floor, rows of players arranged in straight lines (none of those concert-style, semi-circles), and three feet of empty space in front of each row — six feet for the trombones. All of which is why some band programs will reportedly be rehearsing outside. The fact that some band students are expected to take the virtual option is why some directors are focusing on pieces designed for smaller numbers of players.
Ryan Wright is the director of bands at South Lake High School. Describing his plans for the new year, he says, “we will be utilizing SmartMusic software heavily for listening, sight-reading and literature preparation, and we will potentially be employing some new flex band pieces that are being published for smaller, differentiated ensembles. We are also going to take on a 100-performance challenge, encouraging soloists, duets and trios to get out into the community and put in 100 mini-performances over the course of the school year. Those will be programmed and prepared by the students.”
SmartMusic is a computer program that allows students to practice their parts with recorded tracks, and to set the tempo of the tracks. SmartMusic is a popular practice tool. For band students participating virtually, it is also the closest they will get to a traditional rehearsal.
In March when Lake County schools went virtual, rehearsals basically all went away. Yes, there is Zoom. But there are also time delays related to differing internet connections, and then there is the basic problem of how do you read music, play an instrument and follow a conductor on a computer screen all at the same time.
Speaking of those months of all-virtual schooling, Clermont Middle School band/choir director Allen Venezio says, “ensemble playing is near impossible. The ensemble experience is definitely a casualty of Covid 19. We have to work two or three times as hard to keep them excited about making music, and hopefully we’ll get together to make music.”
“There were challenges with students,” he says. “Students were so bogged down with academics, they had a hard time finding time for electives. I found a lot of kids just needed the emotional support that band and choir provide, the mental relaxation of being in a safe place in the school day, as much as making music.”
